ATTN: FR Scholars

[paladin2019]

So I'm making a new char for the high level LC campaign. My concept is an ex-soldier of Helm type. Worked for Helm's church, etc. The Time of Troubles was at the beginning of his adulthood and has had a profound effect on him. As in, he refuses the gods' "right" to worship.

So what I need help with is his philosophy. As it is currently, he understands why Ao cast the gods down. They were to caught up ijn their own plots to care about their followers. And therein lies the rub. If the gods were worthy of worship, they wouldn't have had to be cast down.

But then, instead of learning Ao's lesson, they simply continued their wars and feuds in the mortal realms. This visited untold destrucction and suffering upon their people, for example, the destruction of a good portion of Tantras.

Finally, Ao ended up allowing the gods back into "heaven" rather than have them destroy the world. He figured that preserving the world was more important than the lesson he was trying to teach the gods. So the gods left without learning anything from the experience. They still plot against each other, they still take their worshippers for granted,....

Not that his own god was any better. He was the only god not cast down. That's because Helm is the guardian of "Heaven" and he kept the gates closed, making sure none of the gods could leave before their presence caused more destruction on the world.

Now, my question is, "Where does my grasp of the events break down?" As this is a fairly radical and confrontational philosophy in LC (not to mention the serious consequences in game mechanics), I'd like to make sure I have the facts straight before adopting it. Or, alternately, make sure I know the difference between the facts and the character's perception of them.

[Dennis]

As a sidenote, the existence of Lord Ao isn't known to people. There's a small group of scholars in Waterdeep that suspect his existence, and even erected a temple for him for a little while, but seeing as how he doesn't answer prayers, it was abandoned fairly soon. Just thought you might like to know.